1) Identify ways that corporations are a sustainability problem, referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
Corporations can be found as the cause of many of the sustainability problems that we are currently facing. Classified as a person by US law, corporations are not held to the same standards. Corporations are consistently not held responsible the same way US persons are held responsible and have exploited this fact (The Corporation). These corporations take advantage of foreign countries and are not held responsible for the poor treatment of their employees. They use up public resources and then transport them far away to be sold around the world. Any person who stands up to them and speaks out against their unethical practices is hit with a SLAPP suit to keep them quiet. This was the case when citizens stood up against Nestle and their unethical business practices (Blue Gold). Corporations are able to do this because they have so much money that it makes financial sense for them to pay off fines and law suits over changing their practices. They use their money and influence to minimize bad press against them and keep the public uninformed about their true practices. These techniques minimize public opposition and allow the corporations to continue on without having to change any of their policies. Their large sums of wealth also serve other purposes for the corporations and that is having a lot of say in policy decisions and other legal proceedings. For example, when two Fox News reporters wrote a story about the dangers of Monsato’s bovine growth hormone in milk, they were essentially attacked legally to make sure that they story never aired. The fox news reporters won the court case after many years of fighting in court, but after a quick appeal, Monsanto won the case because the court found that it was not illegal for the news stations to publish false news (The Corporation). Corporations only responsibility is to its share holders, which means that they will do whatever is necessary to keep their share prices from losing value. They spend money on things that seem so unreasonable to an average but they make profit from them. The suicide seed is a perfect example of this absurdity. The suicide seed is a genetically engineered seed that only grows for one season and then dies (The Corporation). This forces the farmer to go back year after year to buy more of the seeds so that the company can keep making more profit. What is has come down to is corporations get to choose whether or not to obey the law based on if it is cost effective. It is often times more profitable for a company to just pay the fine for their irresponsible policies than to pay to fix them. The issue is that no one is being held responsible for the decisions of the company that blatantly disregard laws and any sense of corporate responsibility. The minority of people are making the majority of the decisions the same way the minority of people possesses the majority of the wealth.
2) Describe how science can be a sustainability problem, referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
While science should be the savior in preventing harmful substances from entering the market or from being released into the atmosphere, it is often part of the problem. To examine science as a sustainability problem, one must look at who is funding the research, how much is disclosed to the public and through what medium, who listens to the science, and how decisions are made based on it. There is a huge conflict of interest when scientists are funded by the corporation whose products they are testing. An additional issue is that the studies done on products only focus on the end user. There are no studies don’t that show the impact of the product through its entire lifecycle. For example the vinyl industry insists that their products are perfectly safe despite the many instances where people have become severely sick from being around the production process (Blue Vinyl). Once these studies are done, the information then has to be disclosed to the public but in many cases corporations are able to limit how much information is actually disclosed. The natural gas fracking companies hide behind the fact that their fracking fluid is proprietary information so they cannot share a full list of the chemicals they are putting into the land (Split Estate). The FDA approved the list but that leaves questions about why they approved these chemicals as safe when there have been several cases of illness associated with these fracking sites. Even when there is scientific evidence that something is dangerous, government organizations will still approve it. This was the case when Air Canada fire three of their employees because they would not approve a growth hormone that was found to have negative health effects (Homo Toxicous). Another similar example is when the report about Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone came out. The studies done on the hormone found that it had negative effects, but that was left out of the final report (The Corporation). Science is often the cause of many sustainability problems, but is often what we rely on to make these changes happen because there is no way we can continue living the way we are currently.
4) Describe how the advertising industry a sustainability problem. Discuss the environmental implications of “communication for commerce,” the effort to create emotional connections between consumers, commodities and companies, and the cultivation of “loyalty beyond reason” (The Persuaders). Also discuss whether sustainability advocates should borrow techniques from the adverting industry to advancetheirmessage.
“Culture controlled by advertising is not culture” (The Persuaders). US culture has been manipulated by advertising to the point where it is entirely controlled by the media. Voting for American Idol has become more important than voting for the president. Media is all clutter, and once you break through it, you only find more clutter. This is because now that it has started it can’t be stopped (The Persuaders). Companies advertise because it works and helps to draw in business for them, if it didn’t no one would spend money on advertising. Consumers are at the root of the problem, because if the companies stop advertising they are soon forgotten. Companies seek to create brand loyalty, similar to the way people are loyal to a cult (The Persuaders). For example, the car company Saturn had a homecoming event at their company headquarters. Over 40,000 people attended the event, and they did it because they were loyal to Saturn. Another example is lovemarks, for which the goal is to create loyalty beyond reason. They want users to love their product, not use, like, or admire, but love (The Persuaders). To do this companies have moved beyond just brands and have tried to create an entire experience. A perfect example is an airline company called Song. Song has commercials that had no mention of an airline or travel. Song also created a mall store, which actually confused customers (The Persuaders). Song had far too much brand advertising and not enough actual product. Sustainability advocates should certainly not borrow techniques from the advertising industry. Advertising techniques create mindless followers that often don’t know why they are doing certain things. For example, people use Hummers to pick up groceries from the local supermarket (The Persuaders). Sustainability advocates strive to create educated consumers that can make decisions for themselves, and not create a band of people that follow them without really understanding. Sustainability advocates have the facts and reason on their side. They should appeal to people’s sense of what is reasonable in an effort to gain support for their goals and ambitions.
6) Identify key characteristics of the best environmental media (recognizing that few films or other media are likely to have more than a few of these characteristics). Reference examples from films we’ve seen this semester.
The best environmental media will capture both the heart and mind of the viewer. It will create an emotional attachment and provide key facts about the issue that encourage the viewer to look further into the issue to make their own opinion. These films bring issues to a personal level and make it easy for the viewer to relate to the people in the film. Some films that did this very well are Homo Toxicous, Blue Vinyl, and Burning in the Sun. All of these films document the story of one individual and their failures and successes in exploring their respective issue. In Homo Toxicous the viewer is exposed to many issues such as Inuit infants ear infections leading to deafness, increases in attention deficit disorder, and reproductive issues caused by toxins. The film does not present many numbers about these issues but instead introduces you to the families affected by these issues and lets them tell their stories. Almost always, this style of film makes for a much more convincing argument that presenting facts. Facts do serve an important role in environmental films and it is important for the films to take these facts and portray them in a way that the viewer can understand. A good technique that many films employ is to compare these facts or claims to what viewers would consider reasonable, or common sense claims and actual facts. By making these comparisons, the film can play to the viewer’s sense of what is reasonable and allow them to question the validity of the facts that are presented to them. A film that did this very well by playing to the viewer’s sense of absurdity was the Yes Men Save the World. Another important thing that environmental media should do is make the viewers realize that no agency, government or not, tries to operate in the best interest of all stakeholders. For example in Split Estate, they talk about the chemical used in fracking and how the companies are able to keep them a secret because they are proprietary to the company. The EPA approved the companies to use these chemical despite the health effects that have been caused by fracking. Overall, the best environmental media will encourage the viewer to look further into the issue and get involved at whatever level they feel is appropriate. This could be writing a letter to a congressmen or town representative, all the way to joining the ranks of protestors in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
7) In a 2010 NY Magazine article, Jon Stewart describes his media team as "Soil enrichers. Maybe we can add a little fertilizer to the soil so that real people can come along and grow things.” What does Stewart mean, and how persuaded are you by the metaphor? The NY Magazine article is "America is a Joke"
What Stewart is really talking about is political literacy and encouraging citizens to become more educated about current issues. Stewart’s show, The Daily Show, serves as the “soil enricher,” meaning that it adds to the understanding that the individual already has. For this to be the case though, the individual must already have laid the groundwork, or in other words, already have the basic knowledge to be able to understand Stewart’s jokes and take from them what they want. From there, the viewer can take Stewart’s jokes and views on issues, and do their own research to really fully understand the issue. That is what the second part of the metaphor is, “…real people can come along and grow things.” While I am persuaded by this metaphor, I do not find it to be all encompassing. For the viewer that gets its news from diverse sources and has a basic knowledge of the US political system, I feel that this metaphor is very applicable. For the viewer that gets all of its news from The Daily Show, I feel that the metaphor becomes much less applicable. The viewer that relies on The Daily Show to present news in an unbiased way ends up being much less politically literate than the viewer that gets its news from diverse sources. In an article entitled “America is a Joke” by Chris Smith, he writes in support of comedy news enhancing political and environmental literacy. In an interview with Stewart, he explains that their jokes are made to produce a laugh, but that behind each joke is a political issue. A quote from Brian Williams, an NBC Nightly News anchor states, “I envy his platform to shout from the mountaintop.” What Stewart does well is point out absurdity in the news and poke fun at the ridiculous things that politicians say. If nothing else, The Daily Show helps to bring people back to reality by putting these politicians in a ridiculous light and making the viewer think critically about what they are saying. Not all viewers will do this, but those that do certainly follow Stewarts metaphor of soil enrichers. The thing that must be considered when analyzing this metaphor is if the message is actually interpreted as news and not just a good laugh. While comedy may be a great medium to convey information about current issues, there is no guarantee that the viewer will take away more than just a funny quote from some extreme political figure. By juxtaposing presendential candidates with characters from South Park you are making a mockery of the whole election system and those running for president. This sort of representation of the US political system leads not only to misinformed citizens, but citizens that are disengaged from being involved in the issues because they have no respect for the US political system.
10) Explain, from your point of view, what the US government should do to advance environmental sustainability. What should the US government not do? Together, your lists should include at least six items. Include concrete example to illustrate your points.
To advance environmental sustainability the government should develop stronger legislation against SLAPP suits, which is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Often times, protestors or activists that speak out against corporations unethical practices are quickly silenced by corporations who are able to tie up these citizens in court until they give up or run out of money. This had lead to very little exposure of issues such as how corporations are taking from our water supplies, destroying our environment, and gambling with our health. With strong laws that prevent SLAPP suits, activists could speak out more against these corporations and have their voices be heard. There needs to be a government effort to publish complete, accurate, and unbiased studies on products that have the potential to damage the environment or cause health issues. Often times the science behind many of these studies is biased and in presented in a way that leaves out important information about negative effects. Another area the government should step in is making accurate climate models for the effects of pollution on our environment. Often times the issue is polarized by political party or other reasons, but it is not grounded in fact or hard scientific proof. The government should support education that is interdisciplinary to develop “T” shaped knowledge. Too much focus is placed on the narrow depth of knowledge, leaving students without a good understanding of how their decisions affect many different stakeholders. We need to recommit ourselves to gaining a breadth of knowledge so that more informed decision can be made. The Occupy Wall Street movement has some very important points that it makes but one in particular that is core to their movement is to stop the money train between Wall Street and congress. The government needs to stop swaying to the will of lobbyists and corporations. The officials were elected to serve the needs of the people, not to help corporations make as much money as possible. The government needs to start taxing huge corporations and not allow them to get away with paying no taxes like General Electric did this past year. The government should not bend to the corporations, it should be the other way around. These companies making huge profits should be taxed the same way every US citizen is taxed. The amount of advertising done by companies has gotten out of hand and has all but eliminated the educated consumer. The government should step in and limit what companies can say in their advertisements and also how much they can advertise. A simple way to do this would be to tax the money corporations spend on advertising.
11). Describe the key message of Six Degrees Could Change the World, providing illustrative examples from the film, then evaluate its strategy and effectiveness as environmental media.
Six Degrees Could Change the World is a documentary directed by Ron Bowman and was released back in 2008. The main sustainability problem that was discussed in the film was global warming and its’ effects on the world. The narrative is sustained through a series of explanations of what could happen with each degree of temperature increase on a global scale. For example, with a one degree increase in global temperature, the world will start seeing hurricanes in the south Atlantic, the Northwest Passage will open up, and deserts will cover the western US. To make these sort of predictions requires teams of scientists all over the world as well as 10,000+ data collection sites, satellites, and super computers. The final predictions they make in the film are what would happen as a result of a six degree increase in temperature, and it can only be described as a doomsday scenario. The film offers some real world examples of how to lessen the problem and a very interesting example of a house that runs on the power of one light bulb. One thing that all household owners should do it audit themselves and look for vampire loads. Vampire loads are caused by household electronics that remain plugged in and turned off, but still consume power. One of the most interesting solution they discussed was putting thousands of mirrors up into space to reflect some of the sun’s rays and therefore decrease the temperature on the planet. The film also offers examples of things that are working against this change towards cutting our energy usage. Every day, 14,000 new cars hit the road, contributing to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Also, the time table we are working on to prevent the six degree doomsday requires that the world change its entire energy supply in just a decade. The main strategy of the film seemed to be shock and awe. There were many computer generate scenes that depicted things like NYC streets getting hit by huge waves, and the Amazon rainforest drying up. These clips detracted from the overall seriousness of the film and the scientific data that was being presented. The much more effective strategy that was employed in the film was using real world examples like hurricane Katrina, and the agricultural revolution in Britain. One thing this film did well was really stress the idea that everything has a carbon footprint. There was a great segment done about the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger that took into account everything from raising the cattle to the customer receiving their cheeseburger. At the end of the segment the researcher concluded that 200 million tons of carbon dioxide are released each year just from cheeseburgers in the US. Another strong part of the film was the continuous reoccurrence of the words “positive feedback loops.” In many of the scenarios they presented the film talked about how there is a tipping point where we can no longer stop the continuous release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One example is the ocean, which serves as the world largest carbon sink. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide into the water where small creatures will absorb the carbon to create their shell. There is a point where there will be so much carbon dioxide in the water that it will become too acidic for these creatures, and they will stop absorbing carbon dioxide. In addition, the acidic water will eat away at their shells releasing all that stored carbon dioxide back into the water, thus making it more acidic. One quote from the film was, “the warmer is gets, the faster it gets warmer.” The last thing that is a component of good environmental media that was present in this film was the discussion about social responsibility. Many of the rich countries that made the most significant contribution to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have the money to build of huge flood gates to save themselves. The poorer countries who have not been the cause of this problem are the ones that will face far worst consequences as they cannot afford the expensive protection that wealthy countries have for themselves.
12) Identify ten developments (in education, law, media, etc) that you think would help mobilize greater public awareness of and commitment to environmental sustainability.
Too often, issues are portrayed as being beyond the reach of the average citizen which does not foster global environmental stewardship. Instead, news should cover large issues but focus on local communities and broadcast to those communities. This will show citizens the real effect issues have on their local area and promote more involvement on a small scale. In education, a focus should once again be put on the humanities, arts, and social sciences. It is these fields that create people with the skills to come up with solutions that are culturally acceptable. Engineers tend to be “heads down” problem solvers, meaning they reach solutions but don’t look up to consider many outside factors. Activists should launch a campaign that encourages consumers to enjoy the products that they already own, instead of buying the new technology each time a new product is released. This would force companies to change from building cheap products that don’t last to building durable products that can be used for many years. The media should offer many different reasons for why we need to switch to alternative energy sources. While the science should be enough to convince consumers that it is time to switch, a more effective way might be to illuminate more stakeholders and how they are affected. This would bring up topics like social justice and equality with respect to the energy crisis. Citizens are then able to connect much more easily to the struggles of these people whose lives have been affected. Many of the environmental education film use this technique very effectively. There are very few documentaries about many issues, with each major issue potentially only having one film covering it. There should be a push to encourage anyone to post their own videos about how certain issues have affected their lives. Creating this network of stakeholders through their stories documented in video will help create the feeling that we are all in this together. There is a push to eat organic and fair trade products, but often the regulations on what is classified as fair trade or organic are so broad that many things fall inside these regulations. These regulations need to be made much stricter so that consumers can be sure that they product they are buying is actually organic or fair trade certified. A campaign about alternatives to having a personal lawn at your house could yield benefits. Encouraging citizens to take advantage of public spaces instead of spending time, money, and resources on lawn maintenance would lead to less environmental impact. The media needs to start using its large audiences to make a difference. The Yes Men used the media as the medium for some of their publicity stunts. They brought forward many of the issues the corporations tried to hide and put consumers face to face with the issues. This forced to corporation to come out and blatantly say that they were not in fact going to put people and planet over profits. More instances of these issues being brought into the spotlight would encourage more to get involved. Educators should offer opportunities for their students to get involved and apply it to the classroom. Often times students that want to really get involved are held back because of commitments to the classroom. Offering students the chance to make a difference that enhances their education would foster environmentally conscious consumers. A simple thing that my high school did was make students to 40 hours of community service as a graduation requirement. News stations should be highlighting examples of companies that are not doing things in a sustainable way, as well as companies that are sustainable. They could also do this on an individual level by pointing out houses that are able to run off the grid. If companies see other companies that have been able to make the change to be more sustainable, then they will want to as well because if they do, they get free advertising on a news station. Individuals will be encouraged in the same way by creating the mentality of, “well if they did it, why can’t I?”
13) Imagine that you are teaching high school seniors about environmental controversies. How would you advise them to make sense of the controversy around hydrofraking for natural gas? What questions would you encourage them to ask in analyzing all environmental controversies they encounter? In answering this question, you can draw on news accessible here:http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/.
In teaching high school students about environmental controversies, it is first important to get them to understand the issue and what its effect are on the environment and on human health. To do this the teacher should ask the students to do some initial research on their own about the issue and come back with one article that they think explains the issue well. Then the teacher should help the students to develop an emotional connection to the issue and those affected. Two films, “Gasland” and “Split Estate”, both do an excellent job of interviewing families whose lives have been severely affecting by hydrofracking. Showing students real families that have been affected by hydrofracking will help both bring the issue into perspective and bring it to life. After this the teacher should encourage students to try and list as many stakeholders in the issue of hydrofracking as possible and then try and get them to focus on how hydrofracking could impact their family. This is a good practice for any environmental issue as it forces students to look beyond the obvious and see the world a complicated and interconnected network. Now that they students have a good understanding of the issue the teacher can ask that they now look at advertisements about natural gas powered cars and houses heated with natural gas. They would then start to gain an understanding of how often times the media will only present one side of a new technology, and will often leave out the harmful side effects. Having discussions in class about how products are presented to consumers in advertisements will force the students to be more accountable as consumers. A good exercise could be to have the students do a lifecycle analysis on a purchase they just made. The students would then have to look into how the materials were gathered, how the product was made, where it was transported from, and then examine why they chose it over other alternatives. The more students look into the issue, the more they will find and this exploration will help lead them to make more informed decisions as consumers in the future.
17). Write a 400-word biosketch that describes where you will be and what you will have accomplished twenty years from now. The biosketch should be narrative rather than resume style. Include basic biographical and educational information, the expertise you have built and have become known for, and a brief description of important projects you have been a part of over this period of time. For an example, see the Wikipedia entry for Paul Farmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer)
My name is Ben Clemence and I am 40 years old, married, with two children. After celebrating my 20 year reunion since I graduated college, I took some time to look back over my career since I graduated from Rensselaer in 2013. My degree is a B.S. in mechanical engineering/design, innovation, and society. Right after school I jumped into a role at a large engineering firm as a design engineer. My work was interesting and I made enough money to live comfortably. What I found was that a lot of my personal values didn’t always line up with the company’s. Fortunately, over the last couple years in the background, I has been working on several side projects of my own with my high school buddy that went to school for business. I took a big risk and left my job to pursue my own business opportunity with a couple of projects in the works. The big product that my partner and I had put our hopes in was a replacement for aerosol cans. The product relies on a twisting pump to provide the pressure for the spray. This eliminates the need of all the toxic chemicals in the aerosol cans and eliminates the waste of throwing cans into the landfill. Looking back, it was a huge risk, but it paid off because we now have contracts with both Glade and Febreeze and have prevented millions of aerosol cans from ending up in the landfill. After spending some time with the company, I decided to split ways to start my own design consulting firm that focuses on sustainable design. My firm has existed for about five years now and has advised many different companies on projects such as sustainable building materials, self sufficient housing developments, and products for a sustainable kitchen. We looked as issues such as the waste of an oven and refrigerator and have come up with some replacement solutions. Living in the northeast my whole life gave me the idea for the refrigerator. The basic idea is that, when possible, it borrows cold air from outside to keep food cool instead of using power to cool the inside. I plan to continue living out the rest of my days as I have been the past couple of years, consulting at work and spending time with family. If I’m not doing that I’m out mountain biking at my local trails.
SP Final Exam
Words: 5097
1) Identify ways that corporations are a sustainability problem, referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
Corporations can be found as the cause of many of the sustainability problems that we are currently facing. Classified as a person by US law, corporations are not held to the same standards. Corporations are consistently not held responsible the same way US persons are held responsible and have exploited this fact (The Corporation). These corporations take advantage of foreign countries and are not held responsible for the poor treatment of their employees. They use up public resources and then transport them far away to be sold around the world. Any person who stands up to them and speaks out against their unethical practices is hit with a SLAPP suit to keep them quiet. This was the case when citizens stood up against Nestle and their unethical business practices (Blue Gold). Corporations are able to do this because they have so much money that it makes financial sense for them to pay off fines and law suits over changing their practices. They use their money and influence to minimize bad press against them and keep the public uninformed about their true practices. These techniques minimize public opposition and allow the corporations to continue on without having to change any of their policies. Their large sums of wealth also serve other purposes for the corporations and that is having a lot of say in policy decisions and other legal proceedings. For example, when two Fox News reporters wrote a story about the dangers of Monsato’s bovine growth hormone in milk, they were essentially attacked legally to make sure that they story never aired. The fox news reporters won the court case after many years of fighting in court, but after a quick appeal, Monsanto won the case because the court found that it was not illegal for the news stations to publish false news (The Corporation). Corporations only responsibility is to its share holders, which means that they will do whatever is necessary to keep their share prices from losing value. They spend money on things that seem so unreasonable to an average but they make profit from them. The suicide seed is a perfect example of this absurdity. The suicide seed is a genetically engineered seed that only grows for one season and then dies (The Corporation). This forces the farmer to go back year after year to buy more of the seeds so that the company can keep making more profit. What is has come down to is corporations get to choose whether or not to obey the law based on if it is cost effective. It is often times more profitable for a company to just pay the fine for their irresponsible policies than to pay to fix them. The issue is that no one is being held responsible for the decisions of the company that blatantly disregard laws and any sense of corporate responsibility. The minority of people are making the majority of the decisions the same way the minority of people possesses the majority of the wealth.
2) Describe how science can be a sustainability problem, referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester.
While science should be the savior in preventing harmful substances from entering the market or from being released into the atmosphere, it is often part of the problem. To examine science as a sustainability problem, one must look at who is funding the research, how much is disclosed to the public and through what medium, who listens to the science, and how decisions are made based on it. There is a huge conflict of interest when scientists are funded by the corporation whose products they are testing. An additional issue is that the studies done on products only focus on the end user. There are no studies don’t that show the impact of the product through its entire lifecycle. For example the vinyl industry insists that their products are perfectly safe despite the many instances where people have become severely sick from being around the production process (Blue Vinyl). Once these studies are done, the information then has to be disclosed to the public but in many cases corporations are able to limit how much information is actually disclosed. The natural gas fracking companies hide behind the fact that their fracking fluid is proprietary information so they cannot share a full list of the chemicals they are putting into the land (Split Estate). The FDA approved the list but that leaves questions about why they approved these chemicals as safe when there have been several cases of illness associated with these fracking sites. Even when there is scientific evidence that something is dangerous, government organizations will still approve it. This was the case when Air Canada fire three of their employees because they would not approve a growth hormone that was found to have negative health effects (Homo Toxicous). Another similar example is when the report about Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone came out. The studies done on the hormone found that it had negative effects, but that was left out of the final report (The Corporation). Science is often the cause of many sustainability problems, but is often what we rely on to make these changes happen because there is no way we can continue living the way we are currently.
4) Describe how the advertising industry a sustainability problem. Discuss the environmental implications of “communication for commerce,” the effort to create emotional connections between consumers, commodities and companies, and the cultivation of “loyalty beyond reason” (The Persuaders). Also discuss whether sustainability advocates should borrow techniques from the adverting industry to advance their message.
“Culture controlled by advertising is not culture” (The Persuaders). US culture has been manipulated by advertising to the point where it is entirely controlled by the media. Voting for American Idol has become more important than voting for the president. Media is all clutter, and once you break through it, you only find more clutter. This is because now that it has started it can’t be stopped (The Persuaders). Companies advertise because it works and helps to draw in business for them, if it didn’t no one would spend money on advertising. Consumers are at the root of the problem, because if the companies stop advertising they are soon forgotten. Companies seek to create brand loyalty, similar to the way people are loyal to a cult (The Persuaders). For example, the car company Saturn had a homecoming event at their company headquarters. Over 40,000 people attended the event, and they did it because they were loyal to Saturn. Another example is lovemarks, for which the goal is to create loyalty beyond reason. They want users to love their product, not use, like, or admire, but love (The Persuaders). To do this companies have moved beyond just brands and have tried to create an entire experience. A perfect example is an airline company called Song. Song has commercials that had no mention of an airline or travel. Song also created a mall store, which actually confused customers (The Persuaders). Song had far too much brand advertising and not enough actual product.
Sustainability advocates should certainly not borrow techniques from the advertising industry. Advertising techniques create mindless followers that often don’t know why they are doing certain things. For example, people use Hummers to pick up groceries from the local supermarket (The Persuaders). Sustainability advocates strive to create educated consumers that can make decisions for themselves, and not create a band of people that follow them without really understanding. Sustainability advocates have the facts and reason on their side. They should appeal to people’s sense of what is reasonable in an effort to gain support for their goals and ambitions.
6) Identify key characteristics of the best environmental media (recognizing that few films or other media are likely to have more than a few of these characteristics). Reference examples from films we’ve seen this semester.
The best environmental media will capture both the heart and mind of the viewer. It will create an emotional attachment and provide key facts about the issue that encourage the viewer to look further into the issue to make their own opinion. These films bring issues to a personal level and make it easy for the viewer to relate to the people in the film. Some films that did this very well are Homo Toxicous, Blue Vinyl, and Burning in the Sun. All of these films document the story of one individual and their failures and successes in exploring their respective issue. In Homo Toxicous the viewer is exposed to many issues such as Inuit infants ear infections leading to deafness, increases in attention deficit disorder, and reproductive issues caused by toxins. The film does not present many numbers about these issues but instead introduces you to the families affected by these issues and lets them tell their stories. Almost always, this style of film makes for a much more convincing argument that presenting facts. Facts do serve an important role in environmental films and it is important for the films to take these facts and portray them in a way that the viewer can understand. A good technique that many films employ is to compare these facts or claims to what viewers would consider reasonable, or common sense claims and actual facts. By making these comparisons, the film can play to the viewer’s sense of what is reasonable and allow them to question the validity of the facts that are presented to them. A film that did this very well by playing to the viewer’s sense of absurdity was the Yes Men Save the World. Another important thing that environmental media should do is make the viewers realize that no agency, government or not, tries to operate in the best interest of all stakeholders. For example in Split Estate, they talk about the chemical used in fracking and how the companies are able to keep them a secret because they are proprietary to the company. The EPA approved the companies to use these chemical despite the health effects that have been caused by fracking. Overall, the best environmental media will encourage the viewer to look further into the issue and get involved at whatever level they feel is appropriate. This could be writing a letter to a congressmen or town representative, all the way to joining the ranks of protestors in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
7) In a 2010 NY Magazine article, Jon Stewart describes his media team as "Soil enrichers. Maybe we can add a little fertilizer to the soil so that real people can come along and grow things.” What does Stewart mean, and how persuaded are you by the metaphor? The NY Magazine article is "America is a Joke"
What Stewart is really talking about is political literacy and encouraging citizens to become more educated about current issues. Stewart’s show, The Daily Show, serves as the “soil enricher,” meaning that it adds to the understanding that the individual already has. For this to be the case though, the individual must already have laid the groundwork, or in other words, already have the basic knowledge to be able to understand Stewart’s jokes and take from them what they want. From there, the viewer can take Stewart’s jokes and views on issues, and do their own research to really fully understand the issue. That is what the second part of the metaphor is, “…real people can come along and grow things.” While I am persuaded by this metaphor, I do not find it to be all encompassing. For the viewer that gets its news from diverse sources and has a basic knowledge of the US political system, I feel that this metaphor is very applicable. For the viewer that gets all of its news from The Daily Show, I feel that the metaphor becomes much less applicable. The viewer that relies on The Daily Show to present news in an unbiased way ends up being much less politically literate than the viewer that gets its news from diverse sources. In an article entitled “America is a Joke” by Chris Smith, he writes in support of comedy news enhancing political and environmental literacy. In an interview with Stewart, he explains that their jokes are made to produce a laugh, but that behind each joke is a political issue. A quote from Brian Williams, an NBC Nightly News anchor states, “I envy his platform to shout from the mountaintop.” What Stewart does well is point out absurdity in the news and poke fun at the ridiculous things that politicians say. If nothing else, The Daily Show helps to bring people back to reality by putting these politicians in a ridiculous light and making the viewer think critically about what they are saying. Not all viewers will do this, but those that do certainly follow Stewarts metaphor of soil enrichers. The thing that must be considered when analyzing this metaphor is if the message is actually interpreted as news and not just a good laugh. While comedy may be a great medium to convey information about current issues, there is no guarantee that the viewer will take away more than just a funny quote from some extreme political figure. By juxtaposing presendential candidates with characters from South Park you are making a mockery of the whole election system and those running for president. This sort of representation of the US political system leads not only to misinformed citizens, but citizens that are disengaged from being involved in the issues because they have no respect for the US political system.
10) Explain, from your point of view, what the US government should do to advance environmental sustainability. What should the US government not do? Together, your lists should include at least six items. Include concrete example to illustrate your points.
To advance environmental sustainability the government should develop stronger legislation against SLAPP suits, which is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Often times, protestors or activists that speak out against corporations unethical practices are quickly silenced by corporations who are able to tie up these citizens in court until they give up or run out of money. This had lead to very little exposure of issues such as how corporations are taking from our water supplies, destroying our environment, and gambling with our health. With strong laws that prevent SLAPP suits, activists could speak out more against these corporations and have their voices be heard.
There needs to be a government effort to publish complete, accurate, and unbiased studies on products that have the potential to damage the environment or cause health issues. Often times the science behind many of these studies is biased and in presented in a way that leaves out important information about negative effects. Another area the government should step in is making accurate climate models for the effects of pollution on our environment. Often times the issue is polarized by political party or other reasons, but it is not grounded in fact or hard scientific proof.
The government should support education that is interdisciplinary to develop “T” shaped knowledge. Too much focus is placed on the narrow depth of knowledge, leaving students without a good understanding of how their decisions affect many different stakeholders. We need to recommit ourselves to gaining a breadth of knowledge so that more informed decision can be made.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has some very important points that it makes but one in particular that is core to their movement is to stop the money train between Wall Street and congress. The government needs to stop swaying to the will of lobbyists and corporations. The officials were elected to serve the needs of the people, not to help corporations make as much money as possible.
The government needs to start taxing huge corporations and not allow them to get away with paying no taxes like General Electric did this past year. The government should not bend to the corporations, it should be the other way around. These companies making huge profits should be taxed the same way every US citizen is taxed.
The amount of advertising done by companies has gotten out of hand and has all but eliminated the educated consumer. The government should step in and limit what companies can say in their advertisements and also how much they can advertise. A simple way to do this would be to tax the money corporations spend on advertising.
11). Describe the key message of Six Degrees Could Change the World, providing illustrative examples from the film, then evaluate its strategy and effectiveness as environmental media.
Six Degrees Could Change the World is a documentary directed by Ron Bowman and was released back in 2008. The main sustainability problem that was discussed in the film was global warming and its’ effects on the world. The narrative is sustained through a series of explanations of what could happen with each degree of temperature increase on a global scale. For example, with a one degree increase in global temperature, the world will start seeing hurricanes in the south Atlantic, the Northwest Passage will open up, and deserts will cover the western US. To make these sort of predictions requires teams of scientists all over the world as well as 10,000+ data collection sites, satellites, and super computers. The final predictions they make in the film are what would happen as a result of a six degree increase in temperature, and it can only be described as a doomsday scenario. The film offers some real world examples of how to lessen the problem and a very interesting example of a house that runs on the power of one light bulb. One thing that all household owners should do it audit themselves and look for vampire loads. Vampire loads are caused by household electronics that remain plugged in and turned off, but still consume power. One of the most interesting solution they discussed was putting thousands of mirrors up into space to reflect some of the sun’s rays and therefore decrease the temperature on the planet. The film also offers examples of things that are working against this change towards cutting our energy usage. Every day, 14,000 new cars hit the road, contributing to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Also, the time table we are working on to prevent the six degree doomsday requires that the world change its entire energy supply in just a decade.
The main strategy of the film seemed to be shock and awe. There were many computer generate scenes that depicted things like NYC streets getting hit by huge waves, and the Amazon rainforest drying up. These clips detracted from the overall seriousness of the film and the scientific data that was being presented. The much more effective strategy that was employed in the film was using real world examples like hurricane Katrina, and the agricultural revolution in Britain. One thing this film did well was really stress the idea that everything has a carbon footprint. There was a great segment done about the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger that took into account everything from raising the cattle to the customer receiving their cheeseburger. At the end of the segment the researcher concluded that 200 million tons of carbon dioxide are released each year just from cheeseburgers in the US. Another strong part of the film was the continuous reoccurrence of the words “positive feedback loops.” In many of the scenarios they presented the film talked about how there is a tipping point where we can no longer stop the continuous release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One example is the ocean, which serves as the world largest carbon sink. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide into the water where small creatures will absorb the carbon to create their shell. There is a point where there will be so much carbon dioxide in the water that it will become too acidic for these creatures, and they will stop absorbing carbon dioxide. In addition, the acidic water will eat away at their shells releasing all that stored carbon dioxide back into the water, thus making it more acidic. One quote from the film was, “the warmer is gets, the faster it gets warmer.” The last thing that is a component of good environmental media that was present in this film was the discussion about social responsibility. Many of the rich countries that made the most significant contribution to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have the money to build of huge flood gates to save themselves. The poorer countries who have not been the cause of this problem are the ones that will face far worst consequences as they cannot afford the expensive protection that wealthy countries have for themselves.
12) Identify ten developments (in education, law, media, etc) that you think would help mobilize greater public awareness of and commitment to environmental sustainability.
Too often, issues are portrayed as being beyond the reach of the average citizen which does not foster global environmental stewardship. Instead, news should cover large issues but focus on local communities and broadcast to those communities. This will show citizens the real effect issues have on their local area and promote more involvement on a small scale.
In education, a focus should once again be put on the humanities, arts, and social sciences. It is these fields that create people with the skills to come up with solutions that are culturally acceptable. Engineers tend to be “heads down” problem solvers, meaning they reach solutions but don’t look up to consider many outside factors.
Activists should launch a campaign that encourages consumers to enjoy the products that they already own, instead of buying the new technology each time a new product is released. This would force companies to change from building cheap products that don’t last to building durable products that can be used for many years.
The media should offer many different reasons for why we need to switch to alternative energy sources. While the science should be enough to convince consumers that it is time to switch, a more effective way might be to illuminate more stakeholders and how they are affected. This would bring up topics like social justice and equality with respect to the energy crisis. Citizens are then able to connect much more easily to the struggles of these people whose lives have been affected. Many of the environmental education film use this technique very effectively.
There are very few documentaries about many issues, with each major issue potentially only having one film covering it. There should be a push to encourage anyone to post their own videos about how certain issues have affected their lives. Creating this network of stakeholders through their stories documented in video will help create the feeling that we are all in this together.
There is a push to eat organic and fair trade products, but often the regulations on what is classified as fair trade or organic are so broad that many things fall inside these regulations. These regulations need to be made much stricter so that consumers can be sure that they product they are buying is actually organic or fair trade certified.
A campaign about alternatives to having a personal lawn at your house could yield benefits. Encouraging citizens to take advantage of public spaces instead of spending time, money, and resources on lawn maintenance would lead to less environmental impact.
The media needs to start using its large audiences to make a difference. The Yes Men used the media as the medium for some of their publicity stunts. They brought forward many of the issues the corporations tried to hide and put consumers face to face with the issues. This forced to corporation to come out and blatantly say that they were not in fact going to put people and planet over profits. More instances of these issues being brought into the spotlight would encourage more to get involved.
Educators should offer opportunities for their students to get involved and apply it to the classroom. Often times students that want to really get involved are held back because of commitments to the classroom. Offering students the chance to make a difference that enhances their education would foster environmentally conscious consumers. A simple thing that my high school did was make students to 40 hours of community service as a graduation requirement.
News stations should be highlighting examples of companies that are not doing things in a sustainable way, as well as companies that are sustainable. They could also do this on an individual level by pointing out houses that are able to run off the grid. If companies see other companies that have been able to make the change to be more sustainable, then they will want to as well because if they do, they get free advertising on a news station. Individuals will be encouraged in the same way by creating the mentality of, “well if they did it, why can’t I?”
13) Imagine that you are teaching high school seniors about environmental controversies. How would you advise them to make sense of the controversy around hydrofraking for natural gas? What questions would you encourage them to ask in analyzing all environmental controversies they encounter? In answering this question, you can draw on news accessible here: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/.
In teaching high school students about environmental controversies, it is first important to get them to understand the issue and what its effect are on the environment and on human health. To do this the teacher should ask the students to do some initial research on their own about the issue and come back with one article that they think explains the issue well. Then the teacher should help the students to develop an emotional connection to the issue and those affected. Two films, “Gasland” and “Split Estate”, both do an excellent job of interviewing families whose lives have been severely affecting by hydrofracking. Showing students real families that have been affected by hydrofracking will help both bring the issue into perspective and bring it to life. After this the teacher should encourage students to try and list as many stakeholders in the issue of hydrofracking as possible and then try and get them to focus on how hydrofracking could impact their family. This is a good practice for any environmental issue as it forces students to look beyond the obvious and see the world a complicated and interconnected network. Now that they students have a good understanding of the issue the teacher can ask that they now look at advertisements about natural gas powered cars and houses heated with natural gas. They would then start to gain an understanding of how often times the media will only present one side of a new technology, and will often leave out the harmful side effects. Having discussions in class about how products are presented to consumers in advertisements will force the students to be more accountable as consumers. A good exercise could be to have the students do a lifecycle analysis on a purchase they just made. The students would then have to look into how the materials were gathered, how the product was made, where it was transported from, and then examine why they chose it over other alternatives. The more students look into the issue, the more they will find and this exploration will help lead them to make more informed decisions as consumers in the future.
17). Write a 400-word biosketch that describes where you will be and what you will have accomplished twenty years from now. The biosketch should be narrative rather than resume style. Include basic biographical and educational information, the expertise you have built and have become known for, and a brief description of important projects you have been a part of over this period of time. For an example, see the Wikipedia entry for Paul Farmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer)
My name is Ben Clemence and I am 40 years old, married, with two children. After celebrating my 20 year reunion since I graduated college, I took some time to look back over my career since I graduated from Rensselaer in 2013. My degree is a B.S. in mechanical engineering/design, innovation, and society. Right after school I jumped into a role at a large engineering firm as a design engineer. My work was interesting and I made enough money to live comfortably. What I found was that a lot of my personal values didn’t always line up with the company’s. Fortunately, over the last couple years in the background, I has been working on several side projects of my own with my high school buddy that went to school for business. I took a big risk and left my job to pursue my own business opportunity with a couple of projects in the works. The big product that my partner and I had put our hopes in was a replacement for aerosol cans. The product relies on a twisting pump to provide the pressure for the spray. This eliminates the need of all the toxic chemicals in the aerosol cans and eliminates the waste of throwing cans into the landfill. Looking back, it was a huge risk, but it paid off because we now have contracts with both Glade and Febreeze and have prevented millions of aerosol cans from ending up in the landfill. After spending some time with the company, I decided to split ways to start my own design consulting firm that focuses on sustainable design. My firm has existed for about five years now and has advised many different companies on projects such as sustainable building materials, self sufficient housing developments, and products for a sustainable kitchen. We looked as issues such as the waste of an oven and refrigerator and have come up with some replacement solutions. Living in the northeast my whole life gave me the idea for the refrigerator. The basic idea is that, when possible, it borrows cold air from outside to keep food cool instead of using power to cool the inside. I plan to continue living out the rest of my days as I have been the past couple of years, consulting at work and spending time with family. If I’m not doing that I’m out mountain biking at my local trails.